Integration of Community Youth Development; Youth Employment and Education; Systems, Community and Organizational Change; Evaluation and Learning as a Management Tool; Results-Based Strategic Planning; Partnership and Organizational Development

Profile

Della M. Hughes is a Senior Fellow and Lecturer at the Center for Youth and Communities of the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. Prior to these positions, she was Executive Director of the National Network for Youth in Washington, D.C. (at that time the largest membership organization of unaffiliated youth-serving organizations in the U.S.), and Oasis Center, a community-based youth-serving organization in Nashville, Tennessee. Under her leadership, Oasis Center won the Hospital Corporation of America Prize of $20,000 for Excellence in Management.

Hughes works with the Nellie Mae Education Fund New Models for Systems Change and New Approaches in Urban Districts grantees to develop student-centered learning, systems change logic models. She also served for eight years as the Co-Principal Investigator (PI) and Evaluation and Learning Partner for The Skillman Foundation Good Neighborhoods Good Schools Initiative, a ten-year comprehensive community change effort in six Detroit neighborhoods designed to ensure young people graduate from high school ready for college and work. She has worked not only with a Brandeis-based team but also with evaluators and consultants from Detroit and across the country to build capacity, create alignment among the initiatives various strategies, develop and conduct evaluations, develop and implement a performance measurement system, and create opportunities for learning in multiple venues. She is also a senior team member of the 2013 Summer Youth Employability Initiative (SYEI) and director of the Brandeis Academy for Leadership in in Action, Innovation and Excellence in Youth Employability, funded by The Walmart Foundation. The SYEI works with 13 cities to employ, educate, and support young people as well as create a national dialogue on enhancing youth employability. She is PI for The Hyams Foundation’s five –year Teen Futures Initiative to re-engage teens who are not in school and not working and prepare them for post-secondary education or training, work and life. She also directed The Skillman Foundation’s Youth Sports and Recreation and Youth Development Culture and Arts Initiatives evaluations, the MY TURN Business Expansion and Evaluation Readiness studies, and served as a senior evaluator for The Hitachi Foundation’s Investment in Global Corporate Citizenship.

In summary, Hughes focuses on helping nonprofits, foundations, government, and business integrate their strands of work and manage change to create and sustain quality initiatives, and systems and policies for youth and families. She uses evaluation as a learning and management tool to strengthen leadership, management, and governance of programs and initiatives with methods that prove improve and improve impact, influence policy, and increase resources.

She holds advanced degrees from Vanderbilt University Divinity School and the University of Tennessee School of Social Work.

Hughes, Della M., and Gutzebahl, Jenny. Creating Caring Communities for and with Youth Who Have Dropped Out or Are at Risk of Dropping Out of School: Year Five. Boston: The Center for Youth and Communities for The Hyams Foundation Teen Futures Initiative: 2015.

Moldow, E., Pineros Shields, A., Dorhn, B., & Hughes, D.M.. Creating Caring Communities for and with Youth Who Have Dropped Out or Are at Risk of Dropping Out of School. Boston The Center for Youth and Communities for The Hyams Foundation Teen Futures Initiative: 2013.

Moldow, Erika; Leavitt, Tom; Hughes, Della. Snapshot from Artists For Humanity Year One Evaluation Report, September 2011 – September 2012. Waltham, MA The Center for Youth and Communities for Artists for Humanity: 2013.

Moldow, Erika; Pineros Shields, Alexandra; Dorhn, Blake; Hughes, Della. Creating Caring Communities for and with Youth Who Have Dropped Out or Are at Risk of Dropping Out of School. Boston, MA The Center for Youth and Communities for The Hyams Foundation Teen Futures Initiative: 2013.

Curnan, Susan; Hahn, Andrew; Bookman, Ann; Hughes, Della; Jacobs, claudia; Isenberg, Lanni; Rabinow, Lainey. Moving From Talk to Collective Action: Effective Strategies for Alleviating Hunger and Food Insecurity in America, A Report on Brandeis Research and Interviews with Members of the Corporate Coalition. Waltham, MA The Center for Youth and Communities and The Center for the Advancement of Philanthropy for the Corporate Coalition Fighting Hunger in America: 2012.

Hughes, Della M.; Lanspery, Susan. Resilience, Resolve, Results: Background of the Readiness Phase of The Skillman Foundation’s Good Neighborhoods and Good Schools Initiative. Detroit, MI Center for Youth and Communities for The Skillman Foundation: 2011.

Hughes, Della M.; Moldow, Erika; Lanspery, Susan. Changing the Odds for Kids: What Capacity Do Selected Basic Services in the Six Good Neighborhoods Provide for Young People and Their Families?. Detroit, MI Center for Youth and Communities for The Skillman Foundation: 2011.

Hughes, Della M.; Moldow, Erika; Lanspery, Susan. Changing the Odds for Kids: What Capacity Do the Supports and Opportunities in the Six Good Neighborhoods Provide for Young People and What Characteristics of a System Are in Place?. Detroit, MI Center for Youth and Communities for The Skillman Foundation: 2011.

Hughes, Della M.; Moldow, Erika; Lanspery, Susan; J.F. Morgan Associates. Building Neighborhood Capacities to Support Youth and Families in the Good Neighborhoods and Good Schools Initiative. Detroit, MI Center for Youth and Communities for The Skillman Foundation: 2011.

Hughes, Della M., Susan Lanspery, Chris Kingsley, Tracy Cutter. Training and Networking: Encouraging News: A Report on the Outcomes of the Collaboration between the BEST Youth Worker Certificate Training and the South End/Lower Roxbury Youth Workers Alliance. For Health Resources in Action and South End Lower/Roxbury Youth Workers' Alliance. Waltham, MA: 2009.